In This Burning House
by barrelracer93
Summary: Leah Clearwater led a fairly normal life. She had a few good friends, a decent job, and a very hopeful future ahead of her. Then all of that came crashing down. After her friends drop her for her ex's "gang", the only person she has left is Jacob Black. Will the two have a budding romance? Could the tribal legends be true? *The summary sucks, but please give it a chance!* R&R plz!
1. Chapter 1- Dream or Reality?

Running. Running through the Dark, wet forest that surrounded La Push, the Indian reservation in northwest Washington State where I was born and raised. I wasn't 100% sure how long I'd been running, or the reason I was running out here, in the dark, in the first place. Anybody that knew me, knew I wasn't the biggest fan of being out by myself in the middle of the night. Not that I was scared... of course not. It just always felt like somebody- or something- was watching me, waiting for...well, waiting for something. Hell if I know.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps running hard off to my left. A steady, rythmic beat that wouldn't normally freak me out.

But normally, I wouldn't be alone.

In the dark.

In the middle of a dam forest running from God only knows what.

Fear sat in my gut, making me feel queezy and pushing me to run harder and harder, flying over the moss covered floor faster than I had ever gone before. Stumbling over roots and fallen logs, and cursing my way through the thick underbrush should have slowed me down, but the pure, uncensored fear kept driving me forward. I had to throw my arms up in front of my face to keep the low hanging pine branches from hitting me too hard. Out of nowhere, I burst into a small clearing. It was about the size of a soccer field, but round in shape and full of evening glory flowers: my favorite.

The woods around this area were full of clearing about the same size, but this one was special, familiar even. It was "our" special clearing. The same clearing that my now ex boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Sam Uley, had taken me to when he proposed to me. This was a place I loved, a place that was full of happy memories from my past, before everything went to shit. Story of my life, right?

All of a sudden, as soon as the mysterious footsteps had appeared, they were gone. Sensing I was alone and moderately safe from whatever was trying to catch me, I slowed down to slight jog, and then stopped. Damn, this place was peacful. I saw a fallen log that we often used as a makshift bench, and sat to catch my breath. When I actually opened my damn ears and listened, I noticed that there we no sounds. At all. No cricket song, no call from the nighthawks flying above, and no wind. See? Nice, calm, an-

Twigs snapping broke me out of my momentary revarie. I twisted my neck quickly to the right, trying to see whatever may have made the noise. It was a full moon tonight and not a cloud in sight, but I still couldn't quite make anything out. But...

There! A few feet away from where I had run through the tree line, I saw a pair of golden yellow eyes staring back at me. I felt like I knew those eyes...they seemed familiar in a strange, unnerving way. As soon as I made eye contact with whatever it was, I heard a low, rumbling growl come from the same direction. One of those growls that lets you know you aren't welcome, and that you definitely ARE in danger. I stood up, with the intention of turning around and running again, fully convinced that whatever was making that growl was definitely the same thing that was chasing me earlier.

But of course, I'm a bit of a dumbass and a kluts, and forgot about the log I had been sitting on. I lost my footing and landed square on my ass with an ungraceful "fuck!". Hey, I never claimed to be a proper lady, ok? Dusting my hands off, I finally remembered the reason I fell in the first place, and looked up. What I saw in front of my was something so beautiful and so goddamn terrifying, it made my nightmares look like a happy place. the creature standing before me was some kind of horse-sized wolf, black as night and with a mouth full of dagger-like teeth.

"Stay back! Stay the fuck away from me!", I yelled. But the wolf simply growled again and kept advancing towards me. I crawled backwards as far as I could, until my back was against a boulder. Suddenly, the wolf was standing over me, staring right down and through me.

"Leah...Leah...Leah, get up".

The fuck? That couldn't...there's no way that voice could've come from the wolf...

Right?

The wolf threw it's head back and let out a howl so wild, so free, and so damn bone chilling, all I could do was stare in awe. I could remember my father telling me stories about wolves that used to live around the reservation, but never had I seen or heard one in person.

As the wolf finished howling, he backed up. "Leah, up now!", it said. I was frozen in place, and I was 110% sure that pissed it off. It lowered it's head and bared it's teeth, fully prepared to attack me.

"Leah! Leah, get up now! If you don't, you'll regret it!"

How the hell did this thing know my name? Or know how to talk?

"Leah! Move it, come on!"

The last thing I saw was the wolf jumping towards me, jaws open and claws coming right for me. With no way to escape, I sat back and prepared myself. What a shitty way to go, right?

"LEAH!"


	2. Chapter 2- Do I Have To?

"LEAH MECHELLE CLEARWATER! If you aren't up in the next 30 seconds, I will personally come up there and drag you out of that bed!"

Holy hell, nightmares suck. They always leave me with a cold sweat and my heart racing and generally not knowing what the fuck is actually going on. The only thing worse that a nightmare?

My mother, pissed off at me for yet again missing my alarm. I was in my junior year of high school, but still had to get up early enough to take my younger brother, Seth, to early morning football practice and to drop off my niece, Claire, at daycare. Adulting sucks, but when your father is of ill health, and your mom works double shifts at the local hospital, somebody has to do it.

Sighing, I decided it would be better to avoid a fight and just do as she asked. "I'm coming, I'm coming! Geez...", I yelled back.

"Cut the attitude, Leah. It's not my fault you stayed out so late last night."

"Yea Leah, no need to be such a bitch", my brother Seth called from his room across the hall.

"Shut up, runt! Before you end up walking your ass to school. Why don't you keep your prepubescent, peach fuzz covered ass out of my business."

"Mom! Leah is being...bitchy Leah again!"

"Seth, watch your mouth and quit antagonizing your sister. Leah, stop being so hard on your brother. You know he doesn't mean anything by it."

"Of course he doesn't", I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing mom, just...nothing."

"That's what I thought."

Rolling my eyes, I got up and walked over to my closet. I used to give a shit of what other people thought of me and of the way I dressed, but that was before the Sam fiasco. I looked through the few hangers I had, and decided on a simple black t shirt with the Gas Monkey logo on the front. I paired that with a pair of cutoff jeans and black Nikes, and the look was complete. My long black hair was already straight- perks of my native american heritage- so there wasn't anything left to do.

See? No fucks given about what anybody thinks about my fashion sense. Or lack thereof, actually.

I grabbed my wallet from my dresser and my bag off the hook on the wall and made my way to the kitchen. Seth and my mother were sitting at the bar, discussing the weekend's agenda.

"Where's dad?", I asked.

"Still in bed. He was up late last night again, from what I saw. I didn't finish my shift until 3, and he had just laid down."

Of course, the one person in my family that I could stand to be around for more than 20 seconds, aside from Seth, wasn't awake yet. And it wasn't even that my mother was a bad person: we just didn't get along the best. I was too headstrong, stubborn, and quick to anger, while she was soft spoken and patient.

I grabbed a piece of toast from the bar and glanced at the clock: 7:30. "Come on, dork. we've got to run. Grab your bags and meet me in the car."

"Yea, yea ok. On it, grouchy"

Loved Seth, but I swear he knows just how to push my buttons. He was the most mature 14 year old I knew, and one of the only people that stuck with me, no matter what. He was even there to keep my head up when Same left me.

We got in my old Ford pickup and made our way down the rainy street towards the only school on the La Push reservation. it wasn't that far of a drive, but parking could be a real bitch, so we always tried to leave a little early.

Seth drabbled on about school, his friends, and the latest theories on the La Push "gang". Close to 6 months ago, things started getting strange. First, my boyfriend Sam disappeared for 2 weeks. Non of the tribe elders seemed worried about it, stating that "surely he's fine, he'll show up soon, don't worry about him". The next time I saw him, it looked like he had grown at least 6 inches, cut off all of his hair, and gotten a tattoo. He wouldn't say two words to me, other than to break up with me. The only people he spent time around were the elders, particularly Old Quil Ateara, Billy Black, and my father Harry Clearwater. Even then he didn't ever have much to say.

I was more or less zoned out, thinking about Sam and wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life. Seth's yell broke me out of my thoughts.

"What the hell is that?!" he shouted, pointing down the road in front of the truck.

There, in the middle of a curve in the road stood the biggest wolf I had ever seen, easily standing around 5 feet at its shoulder. It was black as night and looking right at us with piercing golden yellow eyes, seemingly waiting for us to get closer to it. I quickly slammed on the breaks, throwing the truck into neutral, locking the tires us and sending us sliding helplessly towards the wolf.

We finally came to a stop, a mere few feet from the creature. Both Seth and myself were frozen, fear and tension palpable in the cab of my truck. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the wolf. My heart was in my throat, my stomach rolling as I realized a chilling fact. This wolf was so familiar, so similar to the one in my nightmare from the night before...

"What the hell, Leah? Drive, go! Sometime before this thing decides to turn on us!"

Snapping back to reality, I punched the clutch and threw the truck in reverse, tires spinning until they got traction. I finally got the truck turned around and floored it, deciding to take a back road to the school.

"So, that's one hell of a way to start the weekend, huh?"

If only we knew how much weirder our lives were about to get.


	3. Author's Note

Hey guys! I just wanted to take the time to thank everybody for reading the first 2 chapters of this story. I hope you've enjoyed it so far!

I'm hoping to update every day, but if not, I WILL update at least 3 times a week. I start working overnights for Amazon soon, and working days for Target Distribution as well, so I'll be writing during my lunches and posting when I get home.

Once again, thank you for reading! If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns, don't hesitate to message me!


End file.
